Evidence-based care for chronic insomnia and disrupted sleep in adults — in İzmir or online, without reaching for sleeping pills first.
If you are an English speaker in İzmir who cannot fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake up rested, Dr. Ömer Orhun Ercan offers full psychiatric evaluation and treatment for sleep disorders in English. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) — the recommended first-line treatment for chronic insomnia — is available alongside careful, non-dependence-forming medication management when needed. Appointments take place in person in Güzelbahçe or online across Turkey and abroad. Because sleep problems are often a symptom of depression or anxiety, the assessment looks at the whole picture, not just the night.
Almost everyone sleeps badly around a stressful deadline, a move, or a difficult period. Chronic insomnia is different: the sleeplessness takes on a life of its own. You start watching the clock, calculating hours, trying harder to sleep — and the effort itself keeps you awake. Clinically, insomnia that occurs at least three nights a week for three months or longer, and that affects how you feel and function during the day, deserves proper treatment rather than another round of home remedies.
Sleep is also one of psychiatry's most reliable early-warning signals. Persistent insomnia frequently travels with depression and anxiety — sometimes as the first symptom, sometimes as the last one to resolve. Nightmares can point toward unprocessed trauma. Part of a thorough evaluation is deciding whether the sleep problem stands alone or belongs to a larger picture, because that changes what treatment makes sense.
For internationals, the disruption often has a concrete trigger: a relocation that scrambled your body clock, remote work across time zones that keeps your schedule drifting, or the low-grade stress of building a life in a new country. Circadian rhythm problems — a body clock out of sync with local day and night — respond to different tools than classic insomnia, so distinguishing the two matters.
For chronic insomnia, international treatment guidelines recommend cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) as the first-line approach — before sleeping pills, not after them. CBT-I is a structured, short-term program that retrains the connection between your bed and sleep. It works on the behaviors that quietly maintain insomnia: irregular schedules, long compensatory lie-ins, time spent awake in bed, and the anxious mental arithmetic about tomorrow's tiredness.
A typical course runs over several weeks and includes sleep scheduling, stimulus control, and work on the racing thoughts that arrive the moment the lights go off. The techniques are practical and specific, and many people notice their sleep consolidating within the first weeks. Unlike medication, the improvement tends to hold after treatment ends, because you have changed the mechanics of your sleep rather than sedated your way past them.
Sleep medication has a legitimate place — short-term, during a crisis, or while CBT-I takes effect — but it is a bridge, not a destination. Dr. Ercan's approach is deliberately conservative: preferring non-habit-forming options where medication is used at all, prescribing at the lowest effective dose, setting a review date from the start, and planning the taper before the first tablet. If you have arrived already dependent on sleeping pills, that is not a reason for shame; a gradual, medically supervised reduction combined with CBT-I is a realistic way out.
Because a psychiatrist is a medical doctor, the evaluation can also address what else might be fragmenting your sleep: an underlying depressive or anxiety disorder, thyroid issues, medication side effects, or patterns suggesting sleep apnea that warrant referral for a sleep study. Treating insomnia without checking for these is treating the smoke and ignoring the fire.
The first appointment is a 75-minute assessment, conducted entirely in English if you prefer. It maps your sleep history, daily rhythm, caffeine and alcohol use, mood, and previous attempts at treatment, and ends with a concrete plan you understand and have agreed to.
The guideline-recommended first-line treatment for chronic insomnia: a structured, short-term program of sleep scheduling, stimulus control and cognitive work. Delivered in English, in person or online.
Short-term, non-dependence-forming medication support when clinically appropriate — lowest effective dose, clear review dates, and a taper plan from day one.
When insomnia is a symptom of depression, anxiety or trauma, treatment targets the root condition — with psychotherapy, medication or EMDR as the picture requires.
Body-clock realignment strategies for shift patterns, jet lag and remote work across time zones, with online follow-up available from anywhere in Turkey or abroad.
In-person in Güzelbahçe, İzmir — on the western coast, with free parking. Around 25–35 minutes by car from central districts such as Alsancak and Konak, and convenient for Urla, Seferihisar and Çeşme.
Online consultations in English are available across Turkey and abroad via secure video — see online psychiatry.
Yes. The full process — assessment, CBT-I, and any medication follow-up — can be conducted in English. Sleep treatment involves describing habits, worries and nighttime thought patterns in detail, and doing that in your own language makes the work considerably easier.
Not by default. For chronic insomnia, CBT-I is the recommended first-line treatment, and many people improve without any medication. When medication is useful, the preference is for non-habit-forming options, used short term, with the exit plan discussed before you start.
A standard course runs about four to eight sessions over several weeks. Many people notice their sleep beginning to consolidate within the first two to three weeks, and the gains tend to last because the treatment changes sleep habits rather than masking the problem.
Yes. CBT-I adapts well to secure video sessions, and online consultations in English are available across Turkey and abroad. Sleep diaries and scheduling work are reviewed remotely just as they would be in the office in Güzelbahçe.
Yes, and arguably especially so. Insomnia is often the visible edge of depression, anxiety or unprocessed stress. As a psychiatrist, Dr. Ercan evaluates both the sleep problem and what may lie beneath it, so treatment addresses the cause rather than only the symptom.
The first session is used to understand your situation and agree on a personalized plan — in person in Güzelbahçe, or online from wherever you are.
This page was prepared and reviewed by Ömer Orhun Ercan, MD — Psychiatrist (Uzm. Dr.). It is for informational purposes only and does not replace a medical examination, diagnosis or treatment.